July 30, 2007

With the help of your questions. You don't have to ask about me. Raise any question that you think might lead me to say something interesting enough that I won't edit it out of the final cut of (what's getting to be) the daily vlog -- which I will record when next the clock strikes the hour.

When you link to a story, do you have a good idea of how many comments the link will cause based on past history? Have there been blog entries that really surprised you by the multitude (or lack thereof) of comments?

Do you think demonization of one's political or other opponents (as opposed to honestly engaging their ideas and honestly evaluating their motives) is more common in the cyber world than elsewhere? Do you think it is problematic?

Maxine, if she doesn't answer your question it'll be because it came after the deadline. Which you'd know if you read the comments before opening fire.

(By the way, knowing only the abstract description of these cases that you propose, the immediate answer to your question is stare decisis. The court decided this question over a century ago in Reynolds.)

Beethoven....after your vlog..i can see it....i would have guessed stravinsky but perhaps to clean...ravel.. a complicated sentimentality...haydn...for his sense of humor...beethoven for being the perfect movie critic if there were movies.

"Bach is known for being more religious. Beethoven is more deeply spiritual and profound in my estimation."

You've never listened to Bach then.

I love Beethoven as well, and I think it's wrong to see him and Bach (and Haydn) as separated from each other; better to see the continuum from Bach to Handel to Haydn to Beethoven to Brahms to Wagner to Schoenberg. Ravel was what he was, a great orchestrator, but certainly not an inheritor of the contrapuntal tradition. And of Stravinsky we shall not speak.

If you want "spirituality" listen to Bach's 54th Cantata, or the St. Matthew Passion or, best of all, Die Kunst der Fugue (especially the unfinished Contrapunctus 14).

Those front strands of hair are begging to be feathered back. --Just begging for someone to come in there with a curling iron, curl it back and create wings. If only Althouse's hair were longer, it would feather so beautifully.

Oh, and when I say Bach is more religious I mean he is very much within the Christian tradition of spirituality. His is church music, for the Christendom church, expressing the sentiments of theology through an absolutely amazingly connected music.

Beethoven, in my estimation, is tapping into something more. He's reaching into and beyond the static church dogma.

To put it theologically, Bach is very ecclesial. Beethoven is very pneumatological. Both convey Christ, but I'm of the opinion that is the Spirit not the Church who does so most effectively.

Ah, you just can't beat Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," but Bach's "Air on the G String" is also lovely. How can one choose one over the other? One is like raw emotion while the other is like skipping in the rain. My teenager (who plays cello) much prefers Bach.

Galvanized - Like the Barber Addagio for Strings, those are both pieces that are difficult to play because they really shine when you can play them slowly in a way that doesn't sound forced. which is harder than it sounds.I have a version of the Barber piece somewhere that's so slow and beautiful that it's physically painfull. (I don't cry at art in the way Ann describes in this vlog, but sometimes music can have that effect (Pink Floyd often does the trick)). Particularly in the case of the Moonlight Sonata, getting the first movement right - slow, patient and measured - goes to highlight the mania of the third movement, which is insane.

I teared up some when I saw the movie Housekeeping in the theatres at about age 18 during my first year in the Navy. Particularly in the scenes showing the two teenage sisters growing apart, one of them distancing herself from the other and her perceived awkwardness. It evoked for me my own failings with regard to my younger brother and the loss of our shared childhood. Did I cry over art, or life?

simon, I know what you mean. Albumleaf by Chopin has that same feel. What film is to Althouse, music can do for me. The smartest thing I ever did was buying a CD collection when my kids were tiny, which they love but won't dare admit to. (I have found them in my daughter's drawers when they were missing, though. LOL) Gustav Mahler has a piece that he wrote for his wife that has this crescendo that is makes your heart swell up into your throat - Adagietto (No. 5 in C sharp minor). That and Erik Satie's "Gymnopedie No.1 (though the fully orchestrated version) is so perfect.

I think I am only going to try and post on your art, culture comments.

The political comments tend to get very nasty and overrun by the same posters. It starts to make me feel bad and my chakras lose their alignments.

After a refeshing Bikram Yoga, where I can see my third eye, I am all for Namaste not being called a commie and trying to defend myself.

Anyways, love the vlogs, keep them up. You look fabulous. Love the color green on you and you are officially a darling of the gay urban male. How exciting. If you have won over the gay urban male you are golden.

Beethoven's middle period is unbearable. And his late period is a little overrated. The 14th piano sonata is usually played as schlocky dreck. The first movement should not be played ponderously and dreamily, but with a slow, deliberate, nervous energy. Then we're getting somewhere.

hdhouse - Chopin is all about melancholy, isn't he? I've always meant to read about his life because he captures that feeling so well.

And Jennifer -- I was one of the unfortunate ones who, despite pops on the wrist from my piano teacher, adored the instrument but was unable to perform. I always say that it's such a bitter irony to appreciate music so much but have absolutely no ability to play an instrument. I am gravely envious of people who can. So get at least a cheap keyboard and tear it up!